About Me

You know that quote, “Love gives you wings?” Well, my love story is different. My name is Lora Lee and my love gave me roots.

I met Wayne in 2011 through an online dating site. It was like meeting your best friend from high school. We talked for hours on end and watched the sun come up several mornings. Our phones were always plugged into the wall because we were killing the batteries. This man changed my life.

After two marriages ended that were full of mental and emotional abuse, I was just a shell of a woman with no true sense of self. Within a month of meeting Wayne, I took a huge leap of faith and moved out of my home state to join Wayne in Louisiana. When I did, he gifted me a coin ring that he’d made as a promise ring. I was stunned and curiosity bit me hard! I’ve created things with wood, I’ve quilted, gardened, and raised animals, but had never worked with jewelry or metal. I just had to learn more about these “coin rings.”

This got me working with coins and creating rings like the one that he had made me. From there, I learned what else I could do with the coins. I am entirely self-taught, meaning that I have never taken any formal classes. The hobby has grown and evolved thanks to a lot of hands-on trial and error and watching youtube videos. I learned how to cut designs using a jewelers saw, torch powdered glass to add colors to earrings, and hammer different textures on the metal, all crafted from coins. I then incorporated reclaimed copper (gutters and electrical wire) into the mix. I loved the idea of recycling items (the coins and copper) into beautiful jewelry and art. This new craft was a never-ending rabbit hole of ideas. As my interest grew, Wayne encouraged and supported me to leave my factory job and design jewelry full-time. This was the key to a better future and inspired the business I have been growing ever since.

When I first began, I sold to friends and family and attended small local art shows and festivals (the ones with low booth fees). This helped get my product in front of people and let me get comfortable with telling my story about why I create what I do. I found that with each event, I grew more confident in speaking to new people.

Picking a brand name was hard. I use “artist” in the title because it covers any mediums I that choose to work in. Learning how to write about my work and describe it so that people understood what it was and how it was made was a lesson I have learned over time. I really wanted visitors to understand that I handcraft using raw materials rather than buying components and putting them together. I value both methods but choose to create my own as much as possible.


The Journey to Finding Myself

One of the hardest things about making changes in your life is facing the people that will try to tear your ideas down, try to talk you out of a decision, and tell you all the bad things that could happen. Those are negatives at a time in your life when you're ready for some positive changes. Making changes in life is hard enough without being opposed.

What I had to do was to let go of some negative people in my life, whether it was a friend or a family member. It sounds harsh, but looking back on it, I had to do it to grow. I surrounded myself with new people that were excited for me, that encouraged me and lifted me up when I doubted myself. Those are the people you need to inspire you to keep pushing and growing. Learning to say no to the negative people helped me say yes to exciting new adventures and growth as a person. It was hard at first, but now I have amazing people by my side encouraging me and always excited to hear my new ideas. These people are my “ignitors.” They share their light to help keep mine bright. Because of their influence, I now try my best to be like them, to lift up and encourage others.

It’s amazing how your view of yourself changes when you have a good support system in place.
I didn’t even notice a lot of the changes occurring in me until some time had passed. I found myself feeling more confident and more outgoing. I was able to walk up to an artist and talk to them about their work and their dreams. By learning to talk to others about their dreams and goals it became easier for me to not only talk about mine, but to actually make them happen. Once I started seeing my goals met, whether it was a goal to design and create a product or simply create a set amount of products, I became stronger and stronger. It was strengthening my determination to make this business work and encouraging me by confirming that I was on the right track to building a brand that supports me financially.

I am a survivor of abuse, so going from a full-time wife and mother to running my own business was scary. But on the other side of that fear is great freedom. I wanted to thrive! The greatest thing of all is that I showed my children that following your dreams is possible. They, in turn, have learned to stand up for themselves and to be proud of the things they make with their hands. They now value their time and their labor and surround themselves with good friends. All three of my children are creative in their own ways and using those talents to do things that make them happy such as graphic design, painting, pyrography, fishing, and blacksmith work. They are each following their own path and I hope it was due to seeing their own mother overcome her fear of failure, fear of commitment, and fear of being happy. I now know that I deserve to be happy. I deserve to work in a way that blesses my life and adds value to it. I know my time is valuable. This is the way that life should be for everyone!

I want to share love and joy by working with metal. I want that joy to be reflected in each piece I send out into the world. I can now say that I have pieces of my work all over the world and that puts a huge smile on my face. I've also been published in magazines several times, but what I'm most proud of is that through creating all of these beautiful pieces over the past years I have come to find the beauty in ME. I have found my worth. I know my value and I feel I have found my voice! I have become the woman I always looked up to. I discovered what true love was after surviving emotional and mental abuse from the hands of people that said they loved me. I use all of my experiences (both good and bad) to inspire and uplift other women and my own children. I hope to encourage others to be strong, to face life head-on, and be true to their dreams.


My Advice for You

When you learn on your own you will face many ups and downs. I’ve gotten so frustrated with it all that I’ve considered quitting, but after a good cry and a few days of rest, I found that I just can’t stop. You eventually learn to take some downtime and refresh yourself. Sometimes I take a month away from jewelry and create in other mediums, but I always come back at it full of fresh ideas.

My advice to anyone looking to start their own business would be to join groups on Facebook and start asking questions. Watch videos on YouTube and talk to other artists and business owners. Attend craft shows and art shows and talk to the artists. I watch YouTube videos to learn more techniques and I read every book I can get my hands on from my local library about metal work of any kind. I need to constantly be educating myself on metals and what they can do as well as learn everything I can about selling online and in person. I even learned how to build my own displays for my jewelry.

Basically, I got out from in front of the TV and started putting in 10 -16 hour days to create, learn, and work hands-on with my metal. I buried myself in tutorials and books, building websites, editing photos, and learning marketing. No one was going to make this happen for me. I had to do the hard work. What I couldn’t learn or do, I asked for help with and I bartered services with others when I didn’t have the funds to pay. You have to put the work in to get results. You have to create hundreds of “okay” products to finally master a technique and find your own style. Being self-taught, I had no hands on classes or teachers to show me what to do. I had to get the blood blisters from hammering too close to my fingers, or the muscle aches from hammering too long. I learned my trade, I learned to respect the tools I worked with, I sweat, cried, and I fought to get the knowledge I have today.


Following your dreams is often not easy. It takes a lot of courage, but it’s so worth it! I knew when I moved that everything would be different. I was in a bad place and knew that nothing would get better if I stayed there. Something had to change. If you don’t make a change, if you don’t face that fear head-on, are you also willing to face that life will not get better? Or does that make you mad enough to step up and demand that there has to be more? Because there is more. Take that step! Make that leap! Stop waiting for someone else to do it for you. YOU CAN DO IT! YOU can make your dreams come true. It might take a lot of work for a long time or it may happen fast, but you will never see any benefits if you don’t start now! No excuses. Just start. Start with what you have and learn as you go. The end results are so worth it! The world needs your voice and your vision.

Wayne gifted me more than a coin ring that day in 2011. He gave me my roots: a space to plant myself and grow into the strong, creative, determined, and educated woman I am today.